As is made comically plain by the above coup d’oeil, Revengeance has all the prerequisite components of the hack and slash genre. Raiden awoke one morning, took a disconcertingly dark-hued whizz, and lumbered drunkenly down the stairs in that quasi-comatose state we all occupy in the early hours. To his chagrin, somebody had wantonly devoured his Sugar Puffs. Sugar Puffs are his favorite, and he had vehemently insisted that nobody touch them (having affixed the note ‘Don’t even think about it, or I’ll rip your arm off and slap your sweaty nutsack with it’ to the pack on a post-it. Before amending this missive with ‘love, Dad’ to avoid sounding like the giant bastard he his). The result of this heinous cereal larceny is the viscera-dripping rampage you see here.

Fervent franchise followers, nevertheless, wish to know what this bloody business means for Metal Gear Solid. Are we to forever pine for the stealthy days of yore, when we could merrily secret corpses in liberally-provided stationery cupboards (“Fetch me a pen!” Orders an anonymous bad dude. “Y’know, one of my manyevil pens.I love them so.”) and hide in cardboard boxes like big girls? Perhaps not. In a recent interview provided by joystiq, producer Yuji Korekado cryptically commented:

“Right now we don’t have any plans for online competitive play; however, we do have some plans for download content for after the release of the game, that will maybe let you play as a different character or experience different types of missions.”

This could be utilised in a myriad of ways. Espionage endeavors as Old Snake? Perchance a heady romp as Liquid Snake in his beloved REX, striding like a vengeful metallic colossus through a swathe of woodland? Eviscerating lovable Disney-esque creatures beneath your ten-tonne mech feet and cackling with exultant schadenfreude seems a remote possibility at best, but here’s hoping.
As always, stick with Egotastic! for more on this, as soon as the great gaming gods deign to disclose just what this DLC may actually involve.